Question of the Month – Best Star Wars Character?

Can you feel it? Star Wars is almost upon us. It seems so long ago since we last were treated to that titanic battle between Obi Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker on a volcanic planet. Since then, there has definitely been a void in the lives of every Star Wars fan out there. Yes, perhaps the original trilogy should have stayed a trilogy and maybe the prequels should have taught us that movie history is best left alone, but there is nothing like the anticipation of an upcoming Star Wars movie. Han Solo is back. Luke Skywalker as a full-on Jedi Knight. Brienne of Tarth joins the cast. A new Star Wars trilogy is definitely a good thing.

So let’s celebrate. This month’s QOTM is solely dedicated to the very best of the Star Wars universe. Who is the very best Star Wars character? There are so many to choose from that some massive names haven’t even been touched upon. It seems criminal that no one pledged their love to Luke Skywalker, who is the main character, or Qui-Gon Jinn, who is Liam Neeson. However, some surprising names have also risen to the table, some smaller characters getting some much-deserved time in the limelight. Also, one little droid seems to have been picked up half the bloggers below. Who? Well, read on to fin… you already know, don’t you?

ORACLE OF FILM – BOBA FETT

I feel like I should have stopped loving Boba Fett some time ago. When he first strolled onto the scene, he was everything about Star Wars that I loved. The universe is so in-depth that even the small background characters that the main plot doesn’t give much focus can turn out to have awe-inspiring back stories. Boba Fett should have been mid-act baddie 101, a simple plot device to get Han Solo from Point A to B. And George Lucas – or whoever was in charge of creating Boba – took the time and effort to make him a total badass. From the costume that is the very essence of cool to the calm demeanour that just carries such presence throughout the film, Boba Fett is memorable, despite such a small part. He is the only character I have bothered to read into the Extended Universe for and his back story is just as rich as I wanted it to be.

But the people that take Star Wars at face value have ruined by love for the character. They don’t see a figure who is impossibly awesome, but just a mid-act baddie 101, who has been living off over-hyped fans. They point out that his character arc is pretty lame. He does the dirty work for bigger, better villains and ends up being killed off by a blind man. Why does he get so much love? And when they stack up the theories and facts, it is a hard argument to win. The Extended Universe doesn’t carry too much weight in movie debates after all. The prequels tried to rectify this by introducing Jango Fett, who is essentially Boba but does all of the cool things. Sadly this accidentally made Boba’s Dad cooler than Boba. God damnit! However, I have still found myself unable to give up my love for Boba Fett, so for this QOTM, I feel condemned to declare I have a ‘Fett-ish’.

LOL jk my real fave character is Darth Maul, but I couldn’t pass up on that pun.

CINEMA PARROT DISCO – R2D2

I have two favorite Star Wars characters and neither of them are human. I had a hard time choosing but I’ve decided to go with R2-D2 instead of Yoda for Luke’s question (Luke Abbott – not Skywalker).

A few people here may know that I’m a fairly big Star Wars fan (I recently went to Secret Cinema‘s showing of The Empire Strikes Back in London) so I’m not sure if R2-D2 is the answer people would expect from me or not. I’m really curious to see who everyone chooses as I honestly can’t guess this one! Maybe Han Solo will be the most popular answer? I certainly love Solo (he’s my favorite human character tied with Princess Leia). But I adore that cheeky little peasant droid who has more personality in one blip & bleep than the majority of young actors these days (like, say, Hayden Christensen). Yes, a little robot who communicates only through a series of blippy noises! He doesn’t even have facial features that change, he can only move his head side to side a little, and the actual robot could barely move and kept toppling over during the filming of the original trilogy (poor Kenny Baker). Yet people have loved R2-D2 for years! Why is that?

I think the majority of credit goes to Ben Burtt for creating R2’s sounds. It’s amazing that he was able to create sounds that actually let us know exactly what R2 was feeling (yes – I believe he has feelings like any human so don’t argue that with me!). You can tell when R2 is annoyed, scared, happy, and when he’s being a cheeky little bugger. It’s amazing! The noises give him his personality. Secondly, credit has to be given to his design. He’s such an iconic image now (especially next to his annoying but beautiful-to-look-at best friend C-3PO). They’re so linked that it would be a travesty to not at least mention Threepio when talking about Artoo. Hell, though, EVERY Star Wars character is extremely iconic – that’s why the films were such a huge success.

I’ll stop before I ramble on about Star Wars too much. I find it interesting that Ben Burtt also did the “voice” of another robot I fell in love with many years later (WALL-E). It’s a little easier to understand that as WALL-E has very expressive eyes & movements but, again, his sounds are a very big part of what make him so loveable. Basically, everything just came together perfectly to make R2-D2 my favorite Star Wars character, just barely beating Yoda, the world’s coolest puppet. Let’s face it – R2-D2 (along with C-3PO) is really the most important character in the whole saga. The entire tale can be told through these two (and pretty much is). They’re there for it all! And where would we be if he hadn’t delivered Leia’s message to Obi-Wan Kenobi??

SPORADIC CHRONICLES OF A BEGINNER BLOGGER – HAN SOLO

My favourite Star Wars character… phew, that’s a heavy question. However, I didn’t need to think too long or too hard about it ultimately. I’m sure my pick will be popular, but there is a valid reason for that. Who? Han Solo. Why? Pffff, haven’t you seen any of the movies? Han Solo is badass, sarcastic as hell, rebellious, loyal, cheeky, sly, cocky, has a severe problem with authority and is hilarious. These are just some of the features that make him such an amazing character. He is more than he originally comes across as, his relationship with Chewy is endearing, and his skills as a pilot are next level. Han Solo is also, I’d like to add, devilishly delicious.

#TeamHanSolo

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE – R2D2

Three-pio’s a crowd!

My favourite Star Wars character is R2-D2. While he is small and the audience can’t actually understand what he is saying, which makes him a kind of more intelligent proto-Minion, he’s hilarious. He is also a total bad ass. There are so many situations where he saves the day by zappng someone or fixing something or scrambling a security system. Plus he is the perfect foil to C-3PO’s constant state of worry, panic and bluster. I guess you could say he’s the original and best anthropomorphic robot character and he’s one of the reasons I am still excited about Star Wars even after the lacklustre prequel trilogy.

VERBAL SPEW – OBI-WAN KENOBI

Obi-Wan Kenobi. If it wasn’t for him, nothing in Star Wars would have happened the way it should have. Think about it. Luke never would have had his abilities fully awakened. He never would have travelled to the Most Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy. He never would have met Han and Chewie. He never would have saved (or made out with) his sister, Leia. They never would have stopped Darth Vader, the Emperor or the Empire. Star Wars would be nothing without Obi-Wan Kenobi. But that’s not my only reason for picking him. He wasn’t just key, he was totally chill, too. Even in Force ghost form.

Also, for consideration, is the fact that the role of Obi-Wan was played by two very talented men. Sir Alec Guinness was a legend, and let’s face it, Ewan McGregor was one of only two good things about the prequels. The other good thing being Liam Neeson, of course. This choice also has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I had a massive crush on Ewan McGregor from the age of twelve. Seriously, it was kind of obsessive. I even fancied the pants off him in Trainspotting.

Shout-out to favourite character runner-up, Salacious Crumb.

Yeah… he definitely has Irish blood somewhere in him.

SILVER SCREEN SERENADE – HAN SOLO

After a string of QOTMs that have been agonizing to answer (because OMG HOW CAN YOU CHOOSE???), Luke has finally posed one that was pretty much cake for me to answer. Favorite Star Wars character? I didn’t even have to think. My brain screamed, “HAN!!!” Admittedly, there was a brief moment of second-guessing: “Is he really my–” But this was quickly interrupted by the rest of my brain going: “HanHanHanHanHanHanHan.” I may be over-dramatizing that, but whatever. Point is, Han Solo is the greatest. He’s funny, sassy, clever, handsome, and he saves the day on more than one occasion. Honestly, he’s so great that it makes me kinda feel bad for Luke Skywalker. How can you compete with that much awesome? Answer: You can’t. Use the Force all you want, buddy, but you just can’t.

SIDEKICK REVIEWS – R2D2

It’s a hard choice to pick my favourite Star Wars character. There are so many great ones to choose from. But the most loveable for me is R2D2. I find it amusing how other characters can understand R2 and talk to him like a real person, which in a way makes it easier for the audience to think of R2 as more than a robot that beeps and blips. By listening to other characters talk back to R2, I can even pick up on R2’s sense of humor at times. R2 makes a memorable pair opposite C-3PO, but C-3PO’s paranoid android antics are a bit grating. In contrast, R2 usually remains cool and collective under gun fire. R2 also makes for a great companion for Luke, that’s one of my favorite Star Wars character relationships – a boy and his robot. He’s more than a sounding board, he’s a core character of the Star War franchise. And how many times has R2 saved the gang at the last moment? He’s always gets the team out of a tight spot when they need him the most. Even though R2 may look like a spiffy trash can / swiss army knife on wheels, R2 can evoke warm, endearing feelings. R2 has that great mix of charm, innocence, loyalty, and even intelligence without saying a word which makes him my personal fave.

EMMAKWALL EXPLAINS IT ALL – DARTH VADER

My favourite Star Wars character is Darth Vader for the very simple reason that I like his theme music and I think it’s awesome how it follows him about all day.

ENCHANTED BY FILM – BELLE

Let’s be honest – we all loved the love story between her and Chewie.

My favourite Star Wars character is Belle from Beauty and the Beast. She’s so awesome and badass that they didn’t even oxide her in the films because if they did then she’d have beat all the bad guys (who I think are those big, metal, white fellas) instantly and there would be no story to tell, let alone a saga. P.S: Leia is a boring poo-head.

MOVIE ROB – WEDGE ANTILLES

Being a HUGE SW fan, I probably know waaaay too much more than a person should probably know about the history of the SW universe and the backstories of many of the characters. This in and of itself, makes it quite difficult for me to choose one character who I think is the very best and my favorite. So I decided to go with my favorite character as a kid who loved to watch the trilogy in the early 80’s. My friends and I would always play with our action figures and I loved playing with the x-wing pilot who wasn’t Luke and didn’t have a name per se. After watching the trilogy so many times on cable and in the theater, I got to recognize so many of the “minor” characters that I dubbed my action figure Wedge after the only x-wing fighter pilot to participate in and survive both attacks on the Death Stars; Wedge Antilles.

Wedge became my personal favorite character and even when my friends and I would pretend we were pilots attacking the death star, my friends would all fight over wanting to be Luke and I was content being Wedge, Red 2. As I delved deeper into the expanded SW universe via the novels and comics, I learnt more and more about his history; he was Corellian like Han Solo and became Rogue Squadron leader when Luke stepped down from that position in order to reform the Jedi order. One of the coolest things I read about him is that he is the only member of The New Republic to be able to paint two death stars on his x-wing in the place reserved for enemy kills, everyone else only got to add tie-fighters to theirs. He is somewhat of a superficial character in the movies, but is quite important a character in the novels.

Reblogged this on and commented:
Check out who a bunch of us think is the best Star Wars character over at The Oracle of Film for this months Question of the Month. Tnx Luke! May the Force Be With You…Always!!!!

Reblogged this on The Sporadic Chronicles of a Beginner Blogger and commented:
Luke asked us who our favourite Star Wars characters were for this month’s Question of the Month. Head on over to see which characters get plenty love!

Reblogged this on Silver Screen Serenade and commented:
Another amazing Question of the Month from my buddy Luke at Oracle of Film. This time we are talking about our favorite Star Wars characters. Pretty much half of the gang choose the same character, but it might not be the character you’d expect. Really, you should just go and have a read.

It’s got to be Darth Vader because of his brooding menace. He’s iconic. Even Emma know who he is and she doesn’t watch Star Wars! That’s true mastery of the dark side of the force. He can reach out and influence people watching movies he’s not even in!